Page 73 of The Fallen Man

“But you’d do it for me,” said Dominique, squishing herself into Max, who automatically put his arms around her.

“What if I make Aiden go instead? We’ll buy him a conductor’s hat, and he’ll get over it.”

Dominique laughed. “What?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Jackson. “Wait here. I’ll go get Aiden to stop being weird. Be right back.”

Evan was sprawled across one of the reclining lawn chairs while Aiden took giant steps over the paving stones surrounding the gazebo. He was making an endless loop of funny walks.

“She wants to go on the plane,” said Aiden, pointing at Jackson angrily. “Don’t tell me she doesn’t.”

“Yes, I think she does,” said Jackson. Aiden stopped abruptly and came back in his regular stride.

“Then why is he making her go on the train? I don’t understand. I’ve never seen him do anything like that before.”

“He’s not.”

“It was written all over her face,” snapped Aiden. “She was disappointed. And sad. My sister is not supposed to be sad!” His voice rose angrily as he talked.

“Slow down,” said Evan. “Dominique is allowed to be all of those things.”

“I’m not saying she can’t,” snapped Aiden. “I’m saying she could go on the plane if she wanted, and there is no good reason not to except for Max telling her not to.”

“Max is taking the rap because she doesn’t want to tell you she’s freaking out about going on the plane. And I think she’salso disappointed in herself that she’s scared.”

“Oh, shit,” said Evan. “I didn’t even think about that.”

Aiden looked between the two of them and made a confused noise.

“The last time all the Deverauxes were on a plane, it didn’t end well,” said Jackson. “You know, what with the crashing and the dying.”

“Well, shit,” said Aiden. “Now I want to go on the train.”

“You can,” said Jackson. “Max doesn’t really want to go on the train. He just doesn’t want Dominique to be by herself.”

There was silence in the garden while Aiden seemed to take stock of things. “I think I may have overreacted,” said Aiden.

“Mm,” said Evan. “She looked like your mom, didn’t she?”

Aiden looked at Evan, clearly frustrated. “Mom never wanted to do things, but she never said no. It was always right there on her face, and everyone just walked all over her.”

“That is not Max,” said Jackson. “And it really isn’t Dominique.”

“I don’t want to apologize to Max,” said Aiden sullenly.

“I didn’t say you had to,” said Jackson.

“I mean, as someone who has had to own up to saying lots of horrible things, I would recommend it, but…” murmured Evan.

Aiden barked out another expletive and stomped off toward the house.

“She’s not great about admitting vulnerability,” said Jackson, as Aiden slammed the door.

“None of us are,” said Evan. “But I kind of thought we were at a place that we could tell each other.”

“She’s embarrassed, and I think she’s surprised. She’s always said the plane crash was something for you and Aiden to deal with because she was too young to remember.”

“She was ten,” said Evan, looking puzzled. “That isn’tthatyoung, and Aiden is only two years older. What… Hm. She’s theone that’s fine?”